john07
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Post by john07 on Mar 6, 2018 19:29:26 GMT
Was it a Jo Grimond who used to say that his nearest mainline station was in Norway because Thurso was so far, or have I made that up? I think it's probably been said by a lot of people. No idea whether it's true. Jo did say it. All MPs were obliged to specify their nearest railway station in order to calculate the cost of travel to Westminster. He argued that Bergen was his nearest main line station. It may be true for some far flung areas of his former constituency but I am sure that Thurso was far nearer the Orkney part. This would have meant travelling via Scrabster. The name already has me scratching myself!
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Post by john07 on Mar 5, 2018 21:52:42 GMT
Are we meant to dislike Five Star? I don't know anything about them, but according to wikipedia, they do sound reasonable. Populist, anti-EU and anti-immigrant. Lacking in any political cohesion. Is that you would call reasonable?
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Post by john07 on Mar 5, 2018 19:40:16 GMT
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Post by john07 on Feb 5, 2018 1:35:26 GMT
My impression is, that those "nonpartisan" agencies entitled to draw the borders have favoured mostly the Democrats. Probably, because they are filled by incredibly scientific "politologists", who are too "liberal" (=left) for being Democrats... Well my impression is that you are spouting bullshit.
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Post by john07 on Jan 21, 2018 13:24:18 GMT
I think I might join Lega Nord when in Sansepolcro in the late spring. They have offices in our road. I can see the logic of you joining a party of tax dodgers and criminals? You are Umberto Bossi and I claim my £50!
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Post by john07 on Jan 15, 2018 14:50:57 GMT
Given how obsessed they are with military service, maybe a second attempt by Wesley Clarke? Or maybe not anymore, given that they have elected a dubious draft deferee. As they did with Dubya.
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Post by john07 on Dec 31, 2017 16:12:15 GMT
This thread is getting tedious. The pension system in the UK has always been based on a 'pay as you go' arrangement. So those working now pay for the pensions of the retired. The currently retired paid the pensions of the previous generation.
There was a limited lip service to receiving in relation to contributions with things like Graduated Pension and SERPs. But fundamentally NI is tax in another form.
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Post by john07 on Dec 22, 2017 0:01:16 GMT
I'm so glad we have managed to keep this thread going. Do carry on , this is fun. It has the 14 year-old going anyway!
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Post by john07 on Dec 20, 2017 19:44:23 GMT
As is the norm, my words are being twisted on here. There is little point trying to come up with detailed predictions of the next US election in 2020 before the midterms. This does not mean that speculation about the outcome of any other election including the midterms themselves are not warranted. This is a thread headed "US Elections (non Presidential)". If you wanted your previous post to be interpreted in the way above it would have been better off posted in a 2020-focused thread. That's the problem with having 14 years-olds posting!
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Post by john07 on Dec 18, 2017 3:13:51 GMT
This all reminds of of the perception, once widely believed that there was little difference between the Republicans and Democrats except perhaps from their geographical location.
Ogden Nash wrote this ditty:
Between the Parties Republican and Democratic, The feud is dramatic, But except for the name, They are exactly the same.
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Post by john07 on Dec 17, 2017 14:40:15 GMT
It would have been pretty staggering if during the cold war and with the closeness of Thatcher and Reagan if the vast majority of Conservatives wouldn't have identified with the Republicans in the 1980s. Although it's important to remember that the two parties were much less ideologically defined then - in the early 80s there were still some ferociously conservative white Southern Democrats in Congress, who Tories would have felt comfortable with (indeed, some may even have been a bit too right-wing for the Tories, - look up the late Larry McDonald for example). There were also a good many progressive Republicans such a former New York Mayor John Lindsay. Aside from the Conservative Southern Democrats, much of the Northern Democrats were corrupt machine politicians. However by the Reagan era, these ambiguities had been fully resolved.
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Post by john07 on Dec 13, 2017 15:59:42 GMT
Obviously in a normal year 6:1 (or 5:2 with no gerrymander) would be standard. My point was that even when the vote was almost 50:50 it held up 6:1. But that is because of the extreme concentration of the Democratic Party support.
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Post by john07 on Dec 13, 2017 15:29:49 GMT
A one CD win. Jones did improve in the exurbs. As a keen boundary drawer I have a weird respect for the republicans here. That really is exceptional gerrymandering. I am not sure that the above has a lot to do with gerrymandering. It is largely down to factors such as the ethnic distribution of population. How easy would it be to gerrymander an extra Democratic Congress Seat?
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Post by john07 on Dec 12, 2017 20:35:26 GMT
I'm not too keen on STV, because I'm not keen on the larger ward sizes it necessitates and it does not provide much improvement to competitiveness - in most places, it just adds a safe seat for a different party, but leaves at least half the seats as safe under any reasonable set of circumstances. Good point. My division in Edinburgh (Morningside) has four members and effectively gives four safe seats for the Conservatives, Greens, Labour and the Lib Dems. The SNP once won a seat at the expense of the Lib Dems at the height of their popularity (and in the depths of the Lib Dems' toxicity). Most do not even consider putting up more than one candidate for fear of splitting their vote.
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Post by john07 on Dec 11, 2017 18:54:51 GMT
Corsicans...voting...peaceful...democratic...does not compute. Can you give an example of of any Corsican seizing power unconstitutionally? 😉
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Post by john07 on Dec 8, 2017 14:14:30 GMT
Bush Junior won 44% of the Latino vote in 2004. Trump won 28% in 2016. That is less that McCain in 2008 (31%) and marginally ahead of Romney (27%). May I suggest you do an simple internet search before posting 'Fake News' here! Fair enough but my post did mention that I wasn't sure about the level of hispanic support for bush junior. The rest is true true though so it's a falsehood to call it fake news. Well it was certainly bullshit as you could have found out if you had taken the trouble to spend two minutes on an internet search.
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Post by john07 on Dec 8, 2017 0:24:24 GMT
I take it Valdez is Hispanic. A growing demographic who Trump has not impressed. President Trump won a greater proportion of the hipanic vote than romney (and bush junior I think but not sure) as well as gaining the heavily hispanic Florida and achieved a positive swing in the heavily hispanic new mexico. Bush Junior won 44% of the Latino vote in 2004. Trump won 28% in 2016. That is less that McCain in 2008 (31%) and marginally ahead of Romney (27%). May I suggest you do an simple internet search before posting 'Fake News' here!
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Post by john07 on Nov 23, 2017 0:06:27 GMT
As for Bill Clinton, I have believed the following since the mid/late 90s 1. He was obviously an awful person. 2. There was a roughly evens chance that some of the more serious allegations against him were true. 3. The impeachment proceedings were nonsense. As time goes on I think it increasingly likely that some of the more serious allegations were true. I tend to get Bill Clinton confused with Jack Stanton from the film Primary Colors. I am still not sure which is which. Both were Governors of Arkansas and Presidents of the USA. Both characters are likeable but intensely dodgy in personal morality. By contrast Roy Moore comes across as hypocritical as well as deeply unpleasant regardless of the (very plausible) allegations.
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Post by john07 on Nov 21, 2017 16:49:27 GMT
It appears that the GOP leadership believe that Jones being elected will be less harmful to them than Moore winning. A short-term hit for the remainder of the term or a constant reminder.
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Post by john07 on Nov 18, 2017 10:33:37 GMT
Merseymike, The Democrats had a candidate who regarded blue collar White males in those places as Deplorable. Is that Deplorable, North Carolina or Deplorable, Michigan?
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